He Called Our Night a Mistake, So I Raised His Daughter Without Him novel · Chapter 7 of 24
Chapter 7: Uncle Nico
My brother arrived on Friday at noon with a white bakery box and a stuffed octopus the size of a pillow.
"Uncle Nico!"
Rosetta launched herself off the porch steps into his arms, and he spun her until she shrieked.
I watched them from the doorway with my chest aching.
Nico is two years older than me, with our father's wide shoulders and our mother's brown eyes, and a patch of flour on his collar that no amount of driving ever got rid of.
He had been the one person in my family I let keep my number.
He called every Sunday, and every month he mailed an envelope of cash I never spent, and in seven years he had visited twice.
"Octopus!" Rosetta yelled. "Is it for me?"
"It's for whoever can name him."
"Gerald."
"Done."
He set her down and came up the steps and wrapped me in a hug that smelled of sugar and cold air.
"Rina. I should've come the second you called."
"You came now."
"Where is he?"
"Haywood Road. He's coming at two, if I say so."
"Do you say so?"
I looked at him.
"I don't know yet," I said. "The test came back."
He nodded.
I was waiting for him to ask what it said.
He didn't ask, and I decided he was being polite.
Inside he cut cinnamon rolls on a plate for Rosetta and sat with her while she showed him her maps, and I watched him wipe icing off her chin with his thumb.
He's good with her.
He always had been.
After lunch I sent Rosetta to the neighbor's with the octopus, and I sat across from my brother at the kitchen table.
"Mom swears she never showed that picture to anyone but church."
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